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Mempile shows off "TeraDisc" DVD-sized optical storage
Somehow, in a world of 300GB holographic discs being packaged with cereal boxes -- OK, maybe we're not quite there yet -- a 1TB optical disc doesn't sound too terribly far fetched. However, Mempile's upcoming TeraDisc technology deserves no scoffing, with its 100 virtual layers for storage at a "fraction of the price" of other storage solutions on the market. Currently the disc can store 500GB in a transparent disc the thickness of a DVD, but future optimizations will allow for 200 layers of data, with 5GB on each layer, for a whole terabyte of good times. The capacity improvements come from the fact that the disc is transparent, so the laser doesn't have to bounce off of anything, it just goes right through. Right now the technology is still in development, but "strategic agreements" are already in place with media and device manufacturers, so all we've got to worry about is where to store all these cute kitten pics of ours while we're waiting for these discs to hit shelves.
MicroNet Platinum NAS 4.0 packs four 1TB SATA hard drives
Look out folks, as just one month after Buffalo cranked the NAS ante up to 3TB, we've got a new kid on the block holding down the mighty four-oh. MicroNet's Platinum NAS 4.0 indeed packs a whopping 4,000GB on just four SATA hard drives, and while the company didn't go out of its way to divulge exactly which units were stuffed within, we've all got our hunch. Regardless, this device also features 256MB of write-back / write-through error correcting cache memory, Windows / OS X / Linux compatibility, RAID 0/1/5 support, an Intel XScale 64-bit network storage processor, dual-channel gigabit Ethernet connectivity, a lightweight aluminum design, and it even consumes about "one-third less power" than similar alternatives. Cleverly, MicroNet only asserted that the 1TB edition would hit in Q2 for $879, but we're confident the flagship version will tack on quite a premium for all its capaciousness.[Via MacWorld]
Dell XPS / Alienware desktops to ship with Hitachi's 1TB hard drive
Whatever your reasons, we're sure just about everyone could envision a way to fill up a single terabyte of hard drive space, and while achieving such a milestone in one machine has long been available via a bevy of internal drives, Hitachi's 1TB Deskstar 7K1000 drive has made things a lot simpler. Not waiting around for prices to plummet, Dell is touting itself as the world's first pre-fab PC maker to offer up the ginormous HDD in its machines, initially selling it within the cases of the Alienware-branded rigs and ensuring the XPS beasts follow suit shortly. Currently, Alienware is offering up the 1TB drive for $500 above the price of the included 250GB SATA HDD, so if you've got the means, now you've got the option.
Korean researchers build first eight-nanometer NAND chip
Reports of advances in memory storage densities aren't all that surprising anymore -- after all, storage devices have continually gotten both smaller and more capacious since IBM kicked out the first hard drive in 1956 -- but it's still nice to learn that the NAND flash used in our DAPs, cellphones, and soon laptops and desktops will break the terabyte barrier within the next decade. Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the National Nano Fab Center are claiming success in building the world's first NAND flash chip using an 8nm fabrication process, which could eventually lead to capacities as large as one terabyte in a package 1/25th the size of Samsung's 40nm 32GB unit. The breakthrough was realized by merging nanowires with silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon technology, and although it might seem like huge iPods are right around the corner, the research team still faces problems such as shrinking the area where data is saved. In other words, your gear isn't out of date quite yet, but you can rest assured that it will be soon. [Via China View]
Hitachi to offer auto-encrypting hybrid notebook HDDs in 2007
We already knew Hitachi was planning to unveil 20GB Microdrives and perpendicular notebook drives in 2007, but now the HDD giant is one upping itself by adding some juicy details about next year's 2.5-inch hard drive roadmap. Aside from offering both 5400 and 7200RPM units "in the quarter-terabyte range," next year's Travelstar lineup will likely boast "hybrid" technology in order to conserve battery life, enable zippier bootup times / recovery from hibernation, and provide "greater reliability and higher performance" -- oh, and it's seemingly a requirement to rock Windows Vista Premium (on a laptop), too. Moreover, the firm is touting its "HDD-level encryption solution" as being "virtually impenetrable" (read: fuel for a hacker's fire) and it reportedly won't bog your machine down the way similar software-based security applications will; Hitachi's version "scrambles data using a password-generated key" as the data is written, and then descrambled with the key as it is retrieved using the highly-touted Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. Consumers can expect 7200RPM 200GB flavor to be available in "the first half" of 2007, while the larger (albeit slower) 5400RPM 250GB edition should land in notebooks before the year's end.[Via CNET, thanks resource]
How to cram three terabytes onto a CD-R
Okay, so there's no magic product (yet) that will literally burn three terabytes onto a writeable CD, but Harvard researchers are certainly getting closer to making it happen. The group has developed an "optical nano antenna" that's built onto an inexpensive, off-the-shelf antenna in order to bypass that pesky diffraction limit that prevents current lasers from focusing light onto a smaller spot than half its native wavelength. By utilizing two gold "nano rods" separated by a 30 nanometer gap, they have devised a method for a laser sporting an 830 nanometer wavelength to focus its beam onto a 40 nanometer area, allowing for mind boggling amounts of data to be written to an optical disc. While the integrity of the burn is more than sketchy using such a high resolution beam, the team of engineers are hard at work trying to improve and perfect the space-saving process. Until then, we suppose we're still stuck paying an arm and a leg (or two) for those spacious, burnable Blu-ray / HD DVD discs.[Thanks, Adam]
Hitachi sez: 1TB drives by end of year
We don't pretend to attract too many readers who were around when IBM unleashed their model 350 hard disk in the RAMAC some fifty years ago. So you regular, mild-mannered geeks probably aren't aware that the original magnettic spinner featured no less than 50, 24-inch platters for a whopping (at that time) 5MB of storage. Why 24-inches? Easy, the disk was engineered to be "small enough" to fit through a standard door frame! My my, how times have changed. Today we're squeezing 12GB of storage into Jetsonian 1-inch drives while Seagate merrily stuffs a full 750GB of perpendicular goodness into a 3.5-incher. And with drive capacities effectively doubling every two years, it comes as little surprise to hear a product VP from Hitachi predicting a 3.5-inch drive sporting 1TB (1,000GB) before the year is up. Still, it's always good to get the poop direct from the source, so to speak.
Slim Devices, Infrant Tech offer Squeezebox/ReadyNAS bundle
A partnership announced today by storage specialist Infrant Technologies and Squeezebox-maker Slim Devices promises to give consumers an easy way to store and stream up to 200,000 songs around the house, no computer necessary. The two companies are now offering a bundle which includes Infrant's 1TB ReadyNAS network attached storage device pre-loaded with the SlimServer software along with two Squeezebox 3's for $1,500, advertising that the coupling signals the "death of the CD player." We'll wager that many of our readers have already kicked the CD habit long ago, but there's no denying the appeal of having a full terabyte of RAID-protected tracks in a plethora of different formats that can be streamed anywhere your little heart desires.